Support for the death penalty by education

Mark Kleiman was asked why European countries have abolished the death penalty while America and Asia continue to use it. His theory was that “a Westminster system gives well-educated civil servants more power, and the well-educated mostly dislike capital punishment”. The second part of that theory seemed testable, so I checked it out in the GSS, running CAPPUN (supporting the death penalty for murderers is coded as 1, opposing it is 2) by EDUC (years of education). First the aggregate statistics.

As an American he’s more aware of matters American, though England would be runner-up. And I think he has said that Europe is somehow more “American” than America and that there is less “politics” there, with more left to the permanent bureaucracy (as shown on “Yes, Minister”.

The legal positivist in me quibbles with the use of the term “crime”. Crimes are defined by law, and if the actions of civil servants are sanctioned by law they are not crimes. You may not approve of those actions, but let us distinguish between undesirable and illegal.

I think he’s probably implying that redneck snakehandlers have some significant amount of power in the US. You know, Philip Roth Syndrome. Silly idea if the source and current capital of hegemonic ultracalvinist neo-bolshevist is the US itself.

Pretty underwhelming correlation since even a majority of gradual school matriculators are in favor. The high school drop outs percentage also match the college graduates. I think you have falsified it.